Aircraft and other vehicles typically utilize emergency and/or parking brake systems to activate the brakes during emergency situations where normal braking systems usually fail and during situations where the aircraft is parked. Such emergency and/or parking brake systems may be electrically or hydraulically operated.
An electrically operated braking system for a vehicle generally includes a brake control unit (BCU) that receives a control signal, for example, from a pedal and/or switch in the vehicle. The BCU utilizes the control signal to command an electromechanical actuator controller (EMAC) to power an actuator coupled to a wheel of the vehicle. The power provided by the EMAC to the actuator facilitates exerting a braking force on the wheel to cause the vehicle to slow down and/or come to a stop.
These electrically operated braking systems may include systems for providing emergency and/or parking brake functionality to the aircraft. Examples of such systems are disclosed in commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/429,303, entitled “Electric Brake Architecture With Dissimilar Emergency Braking Path” (filed Apr. 24, 2009) and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/433,050, entitled “Differential Emergency/Park Electric Brake System” (filed Apr. 30, 2009), the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
While these systems are beneficial, improvements are desired to further increase the safety and functionality of the electrical braking systems. For example, it is desirable to generate an indication that a braking force is being applied to the brakes during an emergency or parking situation, while reducing the circuitry and/or wiring utilized to make this determination.